OSI Model

o OSI stands for Open System Interconnection is a reference model

that describes how information from a software application in
one computer moves through a physical medium to the software
application in another computer.
o OSI consists of seven layers, and each layer performs a particular
network function.
o OSI model was developed by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in 1984, and it is now considered as an
architectural model for the inter-computer communications.
o OSI model divides the whole task into seven smaller and manageable
tasks. Each layer is assigned a particular task.
o Each layer is self-contained, so that task assigned to each layer can be
performed independently.

Characteristics of OSI Model:

o The OSI model is divided into two layers: upper layers and lower layers.
o The upper layer of the OSI model mainly deals with the application
related issues, and they are implemented only in the software. The
application layer is closest to the end user. Both the end user and the
application layer interact with the software applications. An upper layer
refers to the layer just above another layer.
 o The lower layer of the OSI model deals with the data transport issues.
The data link layer and the physical layer are implemented in hardware
and software. The physical layer is the lowest layer of the OSI model
and is closest to the physical medium. The physical layer is mainly
responsible for placing the information on the physical medium.

Functions of the OSI Layers

There are the seven OSI layers. Each layer has different functions. A list of
seven layers are given below:

1. Physical Layer
2. Data-Link Layer
3. Network Layer
4. Transport Layer
5. Session Layer
6. Presentation Layer
7. Application Layer
Physical layer

o The main functionality of the physical layer is to transmit the individual

bits from one node to another node.
o It is the lowest layer of the OSI model.
o It establishes, maintains and deactivates the physical connection.
o It specifies the mechanical, electrical and procedural network interface
specifications.

Functions of a Physical layer:

o Line Configuration: It defines the way how two or more devices can
be connected physically.
o Data Transmission: It defines the transmission mode whether it is
simplex, half-duplex or full-duplex mode between the two devices on
the network.
o Topology: It defines the way how network devices are arranged.
o Signals: It determines the type of the signal used for transmitting the
information.
Data-Link Layer

o This layer is responsible for the error-free transfer of data frames.

o It defines the format of the data on the network.
o It provides a reliable and efficient communication between two or more
devices.
o It is mainly responsible for the unique identification of each device that
resides on a local network.
o It contains two sub-layers:
o Logical Link Control Layer
o It is responsible for transferring the packets to the
Network layer of the receiver that is receiving.
o It identifies the address of the network layer protocol
from the header.
o It also provides flow control.
o Media Access Control Layer
o A Media access control layer is a link between the Logical
Link Control layer and the network's physical layer.
o It is used for transferring the packets over the network.
Functions of the Data-link layer

o Framing: The data link layer translates the physical's raw bit stream
into packets known as Frames. The Data link layer adds the header and
trailer to the frame. The header which is added to the frame contains
the hardware destination and source address.

o Physical Addressing: The Data link layer adds a header to the frame
that contains a destination address. The frame is transmitted to the
destination address mentioned in the header.
o Flow Control: Flow control is the main functionality of the Data-link
layer. It is the technique through which the constant data rate is
maintained on both the sides so that no data get corrupted. It ensures
that the transmitting station such as a server with higher processing
speed does not exceed the receiving station, with lower processing
speed.
o Error Control: Error control is achieved by adding a calculated value
CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) that is placed to the Data link layer's
trailer which is added to the message frame before it is sent to the
physical layer. If any error seems to occurr, then the receiver sends the
acknowledgment for the retransmission of the corrupted frames.
o Access Control: When two or more devices are connected to the same
communication channel, then the data link layer protocols are used to
determine which device has control over the link at a given time.

Network Layer
 o It is a layer 3 that manages device addressing, tracks the location of
devices on the network.
o It determines the best path to move data from source to the
destination based on the network conditions, the priority of service,
and other factors.
o The Data link layer is responsible for routing and forwarding the
packets.
o Routers are the layer 3 devices, they are specified in this layer and used
to provide the routing services within an internetwork.
o The protocols used to route the network traffic are known as Network
layer protocols. Examples of protocols are IP and Ipv6.

Functions of Network Layer:

o Internetworking: An internetworking is the main responsibility of the

network layer. It provides a logical connection between different
devices.
o Addressing: A Network layer adds the source and destination address
to the header of the frame. Addressing is used to identify the device on
the internet.
o Routing: Routing is the major component of the network layer, and it
determines the best optimal path out of the multiple paths from source
to the destination.
o Packetizing: A Network Layer receives the packets from the upper
layer and converts them into packets. This process is known as
Packetizing. It is achieved by internet protocol (IP).

Transport Layer
 o The Transport layer is a Layer 4 ensures that messages are transmitted
in the order in which they are sent and there is no duplication of data.
o The main responsibility of the transport layer is to transfer the data
completely.
o It receives the data from the upper layer and converts them into smaller
units known as segments.
o This layer can be termed as an end-to-end layer as it provides a point-
to-point connection between source and destination to deliver the data
reliably.

The two protocols used in this layer are:

o Transmission Control Protocol

o It is a standard protocol that allows the systems to communicate
over the internet.
o It establishes and maintains a connection between hosts.
o When data is sent over the TCP connection, then the TCP
protocol divides the data into smaller units known as segments.
Each segment travels over the internet using multiple routes,
and they arrive in different orders at the destination. The
transmission control protocol reorders the packets in the correct
order at the receiving end.
o User Datagram Protocol
o User Datagram Protocol is a transport layer protocol.
o It is an unreliable transport protocol as in this case receiver does
not send any acknowledgment when the packet is received, the
sender does not wait for any acknowledgment. Therefore, this
makes a protocol unreliable.

Functions of Transport Layer:

o Service-point addressing: Computers run several programs

simultaneously due to this reason, the transmission of data from source
to the destination not only from one computer to another computer
but also from one process to another process. The transport layer adds
the header that contains the address known as a service-point address
or port address. The responsibility of the network layer is to transmit
 the data from one computer to another computer and the
responsibility of the transport layer is to transmit the message to the
correct process.
o Segmentation and reassembly: When the transport layer receives the
message from the upper layer, it divides the message into multiple
segments, and each segment is assigned with a sequence number that
uniquely identifies each segment. When the message has arrived at the
destination, then the transport layer reassembles the message based
on their sequence numbers.
o Connection control: Transport layer provides two services Connection-
oriented service and connectionless service. A connectionless service
treats each segment as an individual packet, and they all travel in
different routes to reach the destination. A connection-oriented service
makes a connection with the transport layer at the destination machine
before delivering the packets. In connection-oriented service, all the
packets travel in the single route.
o Flow control: The transport layer also responsible for flow control but
it is performed end-to-end rather than across a single link.
o Error control: The transport layer is also responsible for Error control.
Error control is performed end-to-end rather than across the single link.
The sender transport layer ensures that message reach at the
destination without any error.

Session Layer

o It is a layer 3 in the OSI model.

 o The Session layer is used to establish, maintain and synchronizes the
interaction between communicating devices.

Functions of Session layer:

o Dialog control: Session layer acts as a dialog controller that creates a

dialog between two processes or we can say that it allows the
communication between two processes which can be either half-duplex
or full-duplex.
o Synchronization: Session layer adds some checkpoints when
transmitting the data in a sequence. If some error occurs in the middle
of the transmission of data, then the transmission will take place again
from the checkpoint. This process is known as Synchronization and
recovery.

Presentation Layer

o A Presentation layer is mainly concerned with the syntax and semantics

of the information exchanged between the two systems.
o It acts as a data translator for a network.
o This layer is a part of the operating system that converts the data from
one presentation format to another format.
o The Presentation layer is also known as the syntax layer.
Functions of Presentation layer:

o Translation: The processes in two systems exchange the information in

the form of character strings, numbers and so on. Different computers
use different encoding methods, the presentation layer handles the
interoperability between the different encoding methods. It converts
the data from sender-dependent format into a common format and
changes the common format into receiver-dependent format at the
receiving end.
o Encryption: Encryption is needed to maintain privacy. Encryption is a
process of converting the sender-transmitted information into another
form and sends the resulting message over the network.
o Compression: Data compression is a process of compressing the data,
i.e., it reduces the number of bits to be transmitted. Data compression
is very important in multimedia such as text, audio, video.

Application Layer

o An application layer serves as a window for users and application

processes to access network service.
o It handles issues such as network transparency, resource allocation, etc.
 o An application layer is not an application, but it performs the
application layer functions.
o This layer provides the network services to the end-users.

Functions of Application layer:

o File transfer, access, and management (FTAM): An application layer

allows a user to access the files in a remote computer, to retrieve the
files from a computer and to manage the files in a remote computer.
o Mail services: An application layer provides the facility for email
forwarding and storage.
o Directory services: An application provides the distributed database
sources and is used to provide that global information about various
objects.

TCP/IP model
o The TCP/IP model was developed prior to the OSI model.
o The TCP/IP model is not exactly similar to the OSI model.
o The TCP/IP model consists of five layers: the application layer, transport
layer, network layer, data link layer and physical layer.
o The first four layers provide physical standards, network interface,
internetworking, and transport functions that correspond to the first
four layers of the OSI model and these four layers are represented in
TCP/IP model by a single layer called the application layer.
o TCP/IP is a hierarchical protocol made up of interactive modules, and
each of them provides specific functionality.

Here, hierarchical means that each upper-layer protocol is supported by two

or more lower-level protocols.
Functions of TCP/IP layers:

Network Access Layer

o A network layer is the lowest layer of the TCP/IP model.

o A network layer is the combination of the Physical layer and Data Link
layer defined in the OSI reference model.
o It defines how the data should be sent physically through the network.
o This layer is mainly responsible for the transmission of the data
between two devices on the same network.
o The functions carried out by this layer are encapsulating the IP
datagram into frames transmitted by the network and mapping of IP
addresses into physical addresses.
o The protocols used by this layer are ethernet, token ring, FDDI, X.25,
frame relay.

Internet Layer

o An internet layer is the second layer of the TCP/IP model.

o An internet layer is also known as the network layer.
o The main responsibility of the internet layer is to send the packets from
any network, and they arrive at the destination irrespective of the route
they take.
Following are the protocols used in this layer are:

IP Protocol: IP protocol is used in this layer, and it is the most significant part
of the entire TCP/IP suite.

Following are the responsibilities of this protocol:

o IP Addressing: This protocol implements logical host addresses known

as IP addresses. The IP addresses are used by the internet and higher
layers to identify the device and to provide internetwork routing.
o Host-to-host communication: It determines the path through which
the data is to be transmitted.
o Data Encapsulation and Formatting: An IP protocol accepts the data
from the transport layer protocol. An IP protocol ensures that the data
is sent and received securely, it encapsulates the data into message
known as IP datagram.
o Fragmentation and Reassembly: The limit imposed on the size of the
IP datagram by data link layer protocol is known as Maximum
Transmission unit (MTU). If the size of IP datagram is greater than the
MTU unit, then the IP protocol splits the datagram into smaller units so
that they can travel over the local network. Fragmentation can be done
by the sender or intermediate router. At the receiver side, all the
fragments are reassembled to form an original message.
o Routing: When IP datagram is sent over the same local network such
as LAN, MAN, WAN, it is known as direct delivery. When source and
destination are on the distant network, then the IP datagram is sent
indirectly. This can be accomplished by routing the IP datagram
through various devices such as routers.

ARP Protocol

o ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol.

o ARP is a network layer protocol which is used to find the physical
address from the IP address.
o The two terms are mainly associated with the ARP Protocol:
o ARP request: When a sender wants to know the physical
address of the device, it broadcasts the ARP request to the
network.
 o ARP reply: Every device attached to the network will accept the
ARP request and process the request, but only recipient
recognize the IP address and sends back its physical address in
the form of ARP reply. The recipient adds the physical address
both to its cache memory and to the datagram header

ICMP Protocol

o ICMP stands for Internet Control Message Protocol.

o It is a mechanism used by the hosts or routers to send notifications
regarding datagram problems back to the sender.
o A datagram travels from router-to-router until it reaches its destination.
If a router is unable to route the data because of some unusual
conditions such as disabled links, a device is on fire or network
congestion, then the ICMP protocol is used to inform the sender that
the datagram is undeliverable.
o An ICMP protocol mainly uses two terms:
o ICMP Test: ICMP Test is used to test whether the destination is
reachable or not.
o ICMP Reply: ICMP Reply is used to check whether the
destination device is responding or not.
o The core responsibility of the ICMP protocol is to report the problems,
not correct them. The responsibility of the correction lies with the
sender.
o ICMP can send the messages only to the source, but not to the
intermediate routers because the IP datagram carries the addresses of
the source and destination but not of the router that it is passed to.

Transport Layer
The transport layer is responsible for the reliability, flow control, and
correction of data which is being sent over the network.

The two protocols used in the transport layer are User Datagram protocol
and Transmission control protocol.
o User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
o It provides connectionless service and end-to-end delivery of
transmission.
o It is an unreliable protocol as it discovers the errors but not
specify the error.
o User Datagram Protocol discovers the error, and ICMP protocol
reports the error to the sender that user datagram has been
damaged.
o UDP consists of the following fields:
Source port address: The source port address is the address of
the application program that has created the message.
Destination port address: The destination port address is the
address of the application program that receives the message.
Total length: It defines the total number of bytes of the user
datagram in bytes.
Checksum: The checksum is a 16-bit field used in error
detection.
o UDP does not specify which packet is lost. UDP contains only
checksum; it does not contain any ID of a data segment.

o Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

o It provides a full transport layer services to applications.
o It creates a virtual circuit between the sender and receiver, and it
is active for the duration of the transmission.
 o TCP is a reliable protocol as it detects the error and retransmits
the damaged frames. Therefore, it ensures all the segments must
be received and acknowledged before the transmission is
considered to be completed and a virtual circuit is discarded.
o At the sending end, TCP divides the whole message into smaller
units known as segment, and each segment contains a sequence
number which is required for reordering the frames to form an
original message.
o At the receiving end, TCP collects all the segments and reorders
them based on sequence numbers.

Application Layer

o An application layer is the topmost layer in the TCP/IP model.

o It is responsible for handling high-level protocols, issues of
representation.
o This layer allows the user to interact with the application.
o When one application layer protocol wants to communicate with
another application layer, it forwards its data to the transport layer.
o There is an ambiguity occurs in the application layer. Every application
cannot be placed inside the application layer except those who interact
with the communication system. For example: text editor cannot be
considered in application layer while web browser using HTTP protocol
to interact with the network where HTTP protocol is an application
layer protocol.

Following are the main protocols used in the application layer:

o HTTP: HTTP stands for Hypertext transfer protocol. This protocol allows
us to access the data over the world wide web. It transfers the data in
the form of plain text, audio, video. It is known as a Hypertext transfer
protocol as it has the efficiency to use in a hypertext environment
where there are rapid jumps from one document to another.
o SNMP: SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It is a
framework used for managing the devices on the internet by using the
TCP/IP protocol suite.
o SMTP: SMTP stands for Simple mail transfer protocol. The TCP/IP
protocol that supports the e-mail is known as a Simple mail transfer
protocol. This protocol is used to send the data to another e-mail
address.
o DNS: DNS stands for Domain Name System. An IP address is used to
identify the connection of a host to the internet uniquely. But, people
prefer to use the names instead of addresses. Therefore, the system
that maps the name to the address is known as Domain Name System.
o TELNET: It is an abbreviation for Terminal Network. It establishes the
connection between the local computer and remote computer in such
a way that the local terminal appears to be a terminal at the remote
system.
o FTP: FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is a standard internet
protocol used for transmitting the files from one computer to another
computer.

Networking Connecting Devices

o Repeater – A repeater operates at the physical layer. Its job is to

regenerate the signal over the same network before the signal
becomes too weak or corrupted so as to extend the length to which the
signal can be transmitted over the same network. An important point
to be noted about repeaters is that they do not amplify the signal.
When the signal becomes weak, they copy the signal bit by bit and
regenerate it at the original strength. It is a 2 port device.

o Hub – A hub is basically a multiport repeater. A hub connects multiple

wires coming from different branches, for example, the connector in
star topology which connects different stations. Hubs cannot filter data,
so data packets are sent to all connected devices. In other words,
the collision domain of all hosts connected through Hub remains one.
 Also, they do not have the intelligence to find out the best path for
data packets which leads to inefficiencies and wastage.

Types of Hub

o Active Hub:- These are the hubs that have their own power supply and
can clean, boost, and relay the signal along with the network. It serves
both as a repeater as well as a wiring center. These are used to extend
the maximum distance between nodes.
o Passive Hub:- These are the hubs that collect wiring from nodes and
power supply from the active hub. These hubs relay signals onto the
network without cleaning and boosting them and can’t be used to
extend the distance between nodes.
o Intelligent Hub:- It works like active hubs and includes remote
management capabilities. They also provide flexible data rates to
network devices. It also enables an administrator to monitor the traffic
passing through the hub and to configure each port in the hub.

3. Bridge – A bridge operates at the data link layer. A bridge is a repeater,

with add on the functionality of filtering content by reading the MAC
addresses of source and destination. It is also used for interconnecting two
LANs working on the same protocol. It has a single input and single output
port, thus making it a 2 port device.

Types of Bridges

o Transparent Bridges:- These are the bridge in which the stations are
completely unaware of the bridge’s existence i.e. whether or not a
bridge is added or deleted from the network, reconfiguration of the
stations is unnecessary.
o Source Routing Bridges:- In these bridges, routing operation is
performed by the source station and the frame specifies which route to
follow. The host can discover the frame by sending a special frame
called the discovery frame, which spreads through the entire network
using all possible paths to the destination.
o 4. Switch – A switch is a multiport bridge with a buffer and a design
that can boost its efficiency (a large number of ports imply less traffic)
and performance. A switch is a data link layer device. The switch can
perform error checking before forwarding data, which makes it very
efficient as it does not forward packets that have errors and forward
good packets selectively to the correct port only. In other words, the
switch divides the collision domain of hosts, but broadcast
domain remains the same.

5. Routers – A router is a device like a switch that routes data packets

based on their IP addresses. The router is mainly a Network Layer
device. Routers normally connect LANs and WANs together and have a
dynamically updating routing table based on which they make
decisions on routing the data packets. Router divide broadcast domains
of hosts connected through it.
o

o 6. Gateway – A gateway, as the name suggests, is a passage to connect

two networks together that may work upon different networking
models. They basically work as the messenger agents that take data
from one system, interpret it, and transfer it to another system.
Gateways are also called protocol converters and can operate at any
 network layer. Gateways are generally more complex than switches or
routers. Gateway is also called a protocol converter.
o 7. Brouter – It is also known as the bridging router is a device that
combines features of both bridge and router. It can work either at the
data link layer or a network layer. Working as a router, it is capable of
routing packets across networks, and working as the bridge, it is
capable of filtering local area network traffic.
o 8. NIC – NIC or network interface card is a network adapter that is used
to connect the computer to the network. It is installed in the computer
to establish a LAN. It has a unique id that is written on the chip, and it
has a connector to connect the cable to it. The cable acts as an
interface between the computer and router or modem. NIC card is a
layer 2 device which means that it works on both physical and data link
layer of the network model.

What is Transmission media?

o Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the
information from the sender to the receiver. Data is transmitted
through the electromagnetic signals.
o The main functionality of the transmission media is to carry the
information in the form of bits through LAN(Local Area Network).
o It is a physical path between transmitter and receiver in data
communication.
o In a copper-based network, the bits in the form of electrical signals.
o In a fibre based network, the bits in the form of light pulses.
o In OSI (Open System Interconnection) phase, transmission media
supports the Layer 1. Therefore, it is considered to be as a Layer 1
component.
o The electrical signals can be sent through the copper wire, fibre optics,
atmosphere, water, and vacuum.
o The characteristics and quality of data transmission are determined by
the characteristics of medium and signal.
 o Transmission media is of two types are wired media and wireless media.
In wired media, medium characteristics are more important whereas, in
wireless media, signal characteristics are more important.
o Different transmission media have different properties such as
bandwidth, delay, cost and ease of installation and maintenance.
o The transmission media is available in the lowest layer of the OSI
reference model, i.e., Physical layer.

Some factors need to be considered for designing the transmission

media:

o Bandwidth: All the factors are remaining constant, the greater the
bandwidth of a medium, the higher the data transmission rate of a
signal.
o Transmission impairment: When the received signal is not identical to
the transmitted one due to the transmission impairment. The quality of
the signals will get destroyed due to transmission impairment.
o Interference: An Interference is defined as the process of disrupting a
signal when it travels over a communication medium on the addition of
some unwanted signal.

Causes of Transmission Impairment:

o Attenuation: Attenuation means the loss of energy, i.e., the strength of

the signal decreases with increasing the distance which causes the loss
of energy.
o Distortion: Distortion occurs when there is a change in the shape of
the signal. This type of distortion is examined from different signals
having different frequencies. Each frequency component has its own
propagation speed, so they reach at a different time which leads to the
delay distortion.
 o Noise: When data is travelled over a transmission medium, some
unwanted signal is added to it which creates the noise.

Classification Of Transmission Media:

Guided Media
It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are
transmitted. It is also known as Bounded media.

Types of Guided media:

Twisted pair:
Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted with each
other. A twisted pair cable is cheap as compared to other transmission media.
Installation of the twisted pair cable is easy, and it is a lightweight cable. The
frequency range for twisted pair cable is from 0 to 3.5KHz.

A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular

spiral pattern.

The degree of reduction in noise interference is determined by the number of

turns per foot. Increasing the number of turns per foot decreases noise
interference.
Types of Twisted pair:

Unshielded Twisted Pair:

An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in telecommunication. Following are
the categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable:

o Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone lines that have low-speed

data.
o Category 2: It can support upto 4Mbps.
o Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.
o Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for
long-distance communication.
o Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.

Advantages Of Unshielded Twisted Pair:

o It is cheap.
o Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
o It can be used for high-speed LAN.

Disadvantage:

o This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of

attenuation.
Shielded Twisted Pair
A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire
that allows the higher transmission rate.

Characteristics of Shielded Twisted Pair:

o The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very
low.
o An installation of STP is easy.
o It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
o It has a higher attenuation.
o It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.

Disadvantages

o It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.

o It has a higher attenuation rate.

Coaxial Cable
o Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example,
TV wire is usually a coaxial cable.
o The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel
to each other.
o It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
o The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the
outer conductor is made up of copper mesh. The middle core is made
up of non-conductive cover that separates the inner conductor from
the outer conductor.
o The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the
copper mesh prevents from the EMI (Electromagnetic interference).
Coaxial cable is of two types:

1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a

single signal at high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting
multiple signals simultaneously.

Advantages of Coaxial cable:

o The data can be transmitted at high speed.

o It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
o It provides higher bandwidth.

Disadvantages of Coaxial cable:

o It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.

o If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.

Fibre Optic
o Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for
communication.
o Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that
are used to send the data by pulses of light.
o The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold,
electromagnetic interference from other types of wiring.
o Fibre optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.

Diagrammatic representation of fibre optic cable:

Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

o Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic

known as a core. A core is a light transmission area of the fibre. The
more the area of the core, the more light will be transmitted into the
fibre.
o Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding. The main
functionality of the cladding is to provide the lower refractive index at
the core interface as to cause the reflection within the core so that the
light waves are transmitted through the fibre.
o Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket.
The main purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb
shock and extra fibre protection.

Following are the advantages of fibre optic cable over copper:

o Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable provides more bandwidth as

compared copper. Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as
compared to copper cable.
o Faster speed: Fibre optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This
allows the fibre optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
o Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries the data at a longer
distance as compared to copper cable.
o Better reliability: The fibre optic cable is more reliable than the copper
cable as it is immune to any temperature changes while it can cause
obstruct in the connectivity of copper cable.
o Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight
so it can withstand more pull pressure than copper cable.
Un Guided Transmission
o An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves without
using any physical medium. Therefore it is also known as wireless
transmission.
o In unguided media, air is the media through which the electromagnetic
energy can flow easily.

Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three categories:

Radio waves
o Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all
the directions of free space.
o Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all
the directions.
o The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 khz.
o In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not
aligned, i.e., the wave sent by the sending antenna can be received by
any receiving antenna.
o An example of the radio wave is FM radio.

Applications of Radio waves:

o A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and
many receivers.
 o An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio wave.

Advantages of Radio transmission:

o Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile
cellular phones.
o Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
o Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.

Microwaves

Microwaves are of two types:

o Terrestrial microwave
o Satellite microwave communication.

Terrestrial Microwave Transmission

o Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the

focused beam of a radio signal from one ground-based microwave
transmission antenna to another.
o Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in the
range from 1GHz to 1000 GHz.
o Microwaves are unidirectional as the sending and receiving antenna is
to be aligned, i.e., the waves sent by the sending antenna are narrowly
focused.
o In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to
another antenna which is km away.
 o It works on the line of sight transmission, i.e., the antennas mounted on
the towers are the direct sight of each other.

Characteristics of Microwave:

o Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is from

4-6 GHz to 21-23 GHz.
o Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
o Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
o Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a longer
distance.
o Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by
environmental conditions and antenna size.

Advantages Of Microwave:

o Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.

o It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the
installation of cables.
o Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as
the installation of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
o Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave
transmission.

Disadvantages of Microwave transmission:

o Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping creates insecure communication.

Any malicious user can catch the signal in the air by using its own
antenna.
o Out of phase signal: A signal can be moved out of phase by using
microwave transmission.
o Susceptible to weather condition: A microwave transmission is
susceptible to weather condition. This means that any environmental
change such as rain, wind can distort the signal.
o Bandwidth limited: Allocation of bandwidth is limited in the case of
microwave transmission.
Satellite Microwave Communication

o A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known

height.
o Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more
flexibility than cable and fibre optic systems.
o We can communicate with any point on the globe by using satellite
communication.

How Does Satellite work?

The satellite accepts the signal that is transmitted from the earth station, and
it amplifies the signal. The amplified signal is retransmitted to another earth
station.

Advantages Of Satellite Microwave Communication:

o The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial

microwave.
o The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance
from the centre of the coverage area.
o Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication
applications.
o It is easy to install.
o It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting,
radio/TV signal broadcasting, mobile communication, etc.

Disadvantages Of Satellite Microwave Communication:

o Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher

cost.
o The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods
so that it remains in orbit.
o The life of the satellite is about 12-15 years. Due to this reason, another
launch of the satellite has to be planned before it becomes non-
functional.
Infrared
o An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for
communication over short ranges.
o The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
o It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer between
two cell phones, TV remote operation, data transfer between a
computer and cell phone resides in the same closed area.

Characteristics of Infrared:

o It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
o Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared
communication in one room cannot be interrupted by the nearby
rooms.
o An infrared communication provides better security with minimum
interference.
o Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the
sun rays will interfere with the infrared waves.

Classification & Arrangement

Wired LANs
A local Area Network (LAN) is a data communication network
connecting various terminals or computers within a building or limited
geographical area. The connection among the devices could be wired
or wireless. Ethernet, Token Ring and Wireless LAN using IEEE
802.11 are examples of standard LAN technologies.

LAN has the following topologies:

• Star Topology
• Bus Topology
• Ring Topology
• Mesh Topology
• Hybrid Topology
• Tree Topology

Ethernet:-

Ethernet is the most widely used LAN technology, which is defined

under IEEE standards 802.3. The reason behind its wide usability is
Ethernet is easy to understand, implement, maintain, and allows low-
cost network implementation. Also, Ethernet offers flexibility in terms of
topologies that are allowed. Ethernet generally uses Bus Topology.
Ethernet operates in two layers of the OSI model, Physical Layer, and
Data Link Layer. For Ethernet, the protocol data unit is Frame since we
mainly deal with DLL. In order to handle collision, the Access control
mechanism used in Ethernet is CSMA/CD.

Advantages of Ethernet:
Speed: When compared to a wireless connection, Ethernet provides
significantly more speed. Because Ethernet is a one-to-one
connection, this is the case. As a result, speeds of up to 10 Gigabits
per second (Gbps) or even 100 Gigabits per second (Gbps) are
possible.

Efficiency: An Ethernet cable, such as Cat6, consumes less

electricity, even less than a wifi connection. As a result, these ethernet
cables are thought to be the most energy-efficient.

Good data transfer quality: Because it is resistant to noise, the

information transferred is of high quality.

Baud rate = 2* Bit rate

Ethernet LANs consist of network nodes and interconnecting media or
links. The network nodes can be of two types:

Data Terminal Equipment (DTE):- Generally, DTEs are the end

devices that convert the user information into signals or reconvert the
received signals. DTEs devices are: personal computers, workstations,
file servers or print servers also referred to as end stations. These
devices are either the source or the destination of data frames. The
data terminal equipment may be a single piece of equipment or
multiple pieces of equipment that are interconnected and perform all
the required functions to allow the user to communicate. A user can
interact with DTE or DTE may be a user.

Data Communication Equipment (DCE):- DCEs are the intermediate

network devices that receive and forward frames across the network.
They may be either standalone devices such as repeaters, network
switches, routers, or maybe communications interface units such as
interface cards and modems. The DCE performs functions such as
signal conversion, coding, and maybe a part of the DTE or
intermediate equipment.

Currently, these data rates are defined for operation over optical fibres
and twisted-pair cables:

i) Fast Ethernet
Fast Ethernet refers to an Ethernet network that can transfer data at a
rate of 100 Mbit/s.

ii) Gigabit Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet delivers a data rate of 1,000 Mbit/s (1 Gbit/s).

iii) 10 Gigabit Ethernet

10 Gigabit Ethernet is the recent generation and delivers a data rate of
10 Gbit/s (10,000 Mbit/s). It is generally used for backbones in high-
end applications requiring high data rates.

Wireless LANs
Introduction to Wireless LAN
Wireless LAN stands for Wireless Local Area Network. It is also called LAWN
(Local Area Wireless Network). WLAN is one in which a mobile user can
connect to a Local Area Network (LAN) through a wireless connection.

The IEEE 802.11 group of standards defines the technologies for wireless
LANs. For path sharing, 802.11 standard uses the Ethernet protocol and
CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance). It also uses
an encryption method i.e. wired equivalent privacy algorithm.

Wireless LANs provide high speed data communication in small areas such as
building or an office. WLANs allow users to move around in a confined area
while they are still connected to the network.

In some instance wireless LAN technology is used to save costs and avoid
laying cable, while in other cases, it is the only option for providing high-
speed internet access to the public. Whatever the reason, wireless solutions
are popping up everywhere.
Examples of WLANs that are available today are NCR's waveLAN and
Motorola's ALTAIR.

Most WLANs are based upon the standard IEEE 802.11 standard or WiFi.

Components of WLANs
The components of WLAN architecture as laid down in IEEE 802.11 are −

Stations (STA) − Stations comprises of all devices and equipment that are
connected to the wireless LAN. Each station has a wireless network interface
controller. A station can be of two types −

Wireless Access Point (WAP or AP)

Client

Basic Service Set (BSS) − A basic service set is a group of stations

communicating at the physical layer level. BSS can be of two categories −

Infrastructure BSS

Independent BSS

Extended Service Set (ESS) − It is a set of all connected BSS.

Distribution System (DS) − It connects access points in ESS.

Types of WLANS
WLANs, as standardized by IEEE 802.11, operates in two basic modes,
infrastructure, and ad hoc mode.
Infrastructure Mode − Mobile devices or clients connect to an access point
(AP) that in turn connects via a bridge to the LAN or Internet. The client
transmits frames to other clients via the AP.

Ad Hoc Mode − Clients transmit frames directly to each other in a peer-to-

peer fashion.

Advantages of WLANs

o Flexibility: Within radio coverage, nodes can communicate without

further restriction. Radio waves can penetrate walls, senders and
receivers can be placed anywhere (also non-visible, e.g., within devices,
in walls etc.).
o Planning: Only wireless ad-hoc networks allow for communication
without previous planning, any wired network needs wiring plans.
o Design: Wireless networks allow for the design of independent, small
devices which can for example be put into a pocket. Cables not only
restrict users but also designers of small notepads, PDAs, etc.
o Robustness: Wireless networks can handle disasters, e.g., earthquakes,
flood etc. whereas, networks requiring a wired infrastructure will usually
break down completely in disasters.
o Cost: The cost of installing and maintaining a wireless LAN is on
average lower than the cost of installing and maintaining a traditional
wired LAN, for two reasons. First, after providing wireless access to the
wireless network via an access point for the first user, adding additional
users to a network will not increase the cost. And second, wireless LAN
eliminates the direct costs of cabling and the labor associated with
installing and repairing it.
o Ease of Use: Wireless LAN is easy to use and the users need very little
new information to take advantage of WLANs.

Disadvantages of WLANs

o Quality of Services: Quality of wireless LAN is typically lower than

wired networks. The main reason for this is the lower bandwidth due to
limitations is radio transmission, higher error rates due to interference
 and higher delay/delay variation due to extensive error correction and
detection mechanisms.
o Proprietary Solutions: Due to slow standardization procedures, many
companies have come up with proprietary solutions offering
standardization functionality plus many enhanced features. Most
components today adhere to the basic standards IEEE 802.11a or
802.11b.
o Restrictions: Several govt. and non-govt. institutions world-wide
regulate the operation and restrict frequencies to minimize
interference.
o Global operation: Wireless LAN products are sold in all countries so,
national and international frequency regulations have to be considered.
o Low Power: Devices communicating via a wireless LAN are typically
power consuming, also wireless devices running on battery power.
Whereas the LAN design should take this into account and implement
special power saving modes and power management functions.
o License free operation: LAN operators don't want to apply for a
special license to be able to use the product. The equipment must
operate in a license free band, such as the 2.4 GHz ISM band.
o Robust transmission technology: If wireless LAN uses radio
transmission, many other electrical devices can interfere with them
(such as vacuum cleaner, train engines, hair dryers, etc.).Wireless LAN
transceivers cannot be adjusted for perfect transmission is a standard
office or production environment.